Reception - is this normal developmentally ?

[mummyloveslucy]

My daughter has recently gone into reception. She's 4.5. At parents evening I was shown a book and the teacher said "this is Lucy's writting abot autumn" (it was a series of squiggles and marks that resembled letters along the lines. Then she pointed to the huge scrible undernieth and said "and this is Lucy's picture of autumn"
In a way I thought it was really sweet and funny, but part of me wanted to compare it with the other children's to see what they'd done. Does this sound normal for her age? The teacher seemed happy with her attempts.

There's a massive range of normal at this age. I'm going to guess that this was a free writing exercise and it's positive that they are being given an opportunity to do this emergent writing. Some children would have probably formed some letters and some may have even had a go at some words. Many would have had shapes and symbols with perhaps only a couple of obvious letters.

If there were no shapes resembling letters and no shapes resembling images that may have been slightly below 'the average' BUT that is just unhelpful to say as you have no way of knowing what was going through Lucy's mind and what the context was. Perhaps she was just enjoying the sensation of the pencil to paper, scribbling leaves being blown by the wind etc. If you said 'write your name', 'draw a tree' I'm going to guess she would have a go at being more representative. If at the end of the term EVERY piece of work in the book is indistiguishable emergent writing then that might be an issue but it won't be.

The positive thing is that Lucy feels confident and comfortable to do this and her teacher values her. That's what matters. Because of that positive attitude the rest will come. I'd MUCH rather see that than 3 perfectly formed letters in the corner of a page and a tiny nervous looking tree attempt. She is developing pencil control, knows that letters and words require shapes and straight lines and they communicate meaning. This is all good. You have the right attitude.

agree with tambajam - some will be achieving soemthing recognisable, others not yet. Did they not have displays to show you with all the children's work ?

Tambajam are you a teacher? You sound lovely.

I just had a little tour of ds's school and of course nosed at all the artwork and name-writing etc. I was struck too by the huge variety of normal.

Can't add to tamberjam's post, it's perfect.
Your desire to compare your child's work to others is also normal, but try and resist it!

Prunerz - Awwww. Thanks. Yes, I was a primary teacher for 9 years but currently doing the SAHM thing.

All that matters at 4 is that she's happy to go to school, making friends, not disruptive and has a lovely teacher. Sounds like she's doing perfectly to me .

What else did the teacher say about dd at parents' evening?

(encourages a bit of un-MNlike boasting from MLL )

Our reception teacher said that lots of children's writing is not recognisable to us, but it is meaningful to them. We were told to support the children and give them lots of praise when they did a few squiggles but then explained that they had written a story about a princess etc. At dd's school the reception children often did writing one-to-one with a TA, and the adult would write a translation under the child's work transcribing word for word her story. The two versions were usually totally different

One of the first stages in writing is to recognise the difference between drawing pictures and writing words. There may not look too different to you, but if your child recognises that one is a drawing and one means words, then thats the first step done!

There is a massive range.

I help in an FS2 class and have for years. At this stage of the year there are certainly a number of children (not masses, but certainly some) who are mark making rather than writing, even for their name.

Equally some (a few) can write a few words, which is ine reason why they might do this kind of activity. It's great that it is offered and she felt happy to do something rather than refusing

I agree with others, we should value our child's work even if it doesn't look like what they say!

Thanks everyone. The writing did look a bit like letters and shapes and I did notice it was all quite neet and sat on the lines. The teacher asked her what it said and there was a comment next to it saying
"Autumn leaves come off the trees and tumble, tumble down to the floor."

The picture had a comment saying "these are the leaves tumbling."

The teacher is absoluitly lovely and my daughter is very fond of her and wants to do everything she can to please her.

The teacher did comment on how Lucy has grown in confidence and will now lead convisations and play rather than be in the background. She also said that she has a very caring gentle nature and is very eagre to please. [proud mummy]

She also loves books. She memorises the words and "reads" the books to me.
I think this is important as when I was a school I was dyslexic but my parents always read to me and as a result I had a real love of books and that helped me to overcome the problem. Although I'm still not great at spelling, I've always got a good book on the go.

She sounds lovely, so budge up, I'm very proud of her too

Wonderful. What a star.

Both of you!

Aww thanks heated and Prunerz. That's so lovely!